If you had to make a list of some of the most important factors that contribute to the United States economy, the energy sector would undoubtedly be right at the top.
Without the next generation of energy professionals and engineers, it wouldn’t just be the energy supply that would suffer. Health and welfare would be in jeopardy, too – leading to a situation where the economy of the country would largely be unable to function.
That’s a lesson that Kelcy Warren has learned first-hand over the years as he built the type of career for himself in oil that most people can only dream of. It’s also a situation that he wants to impact in any positive way that he can – and his record setting $12 million donation to the University of Texas at Arlington goes a long way towards proving it. That donation isn’t just big – it’s also the largest in the institution’s history.
Forging the Future in the Philanthropy of Today
Kelcy Warren himself graduated from UTA back in 1978. He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. Since then, he has obviously gone onto great success – most notably by becoming a pipeline executive and the founder of Energy Transfer.
Warren has made it clear that he values the opportunity to give back to UTA, since the institution played such an undeniable role in both his educational and professional experience. It’s also something he is honored by. He has indicated that Texas has a critical need for highly skilled graduates – something that will only become more pressing as time goes on. The state (and the entire country, for that matter) need people who understand how to more effectively manage energy resources. They need people who are passionate and dedicated to the idea of finding new, more sustainable energy sources to begin with.
It is Kelcy Warren’s hope that the REE program – an innovative, first of its kind experience that is expected to launch in the fall of 2023 – will help accomplish all of this and more.
Additionally, a significant part of Kelcy Warren’s donation will go to creating new lab spaces to make sure that students have access to the resources they need to thrive. It will see no less than three new academic positions named after Kelcy Warren, allowing UTA to spare no expense in its search for world-class thinkers to help attract the next generation of engineers to its programs. It will also provide fellowship support and more.
Born in a small part of eastern Texas called Gladewater, Kelcy Warren always grew up with a strong sense of community. He loved his hometown because it was small enough to the point where he truly felt he knew everybody. Not only that, but he’s always been clear that the Baptist church played a critical role in his family life as well.
He said that if the church doors happened to be open when they were passing by, he and his family would go in – end of story. The Warren family attended church no less than two times every Sunday.
This was one of the many important lessons that his parents instilled in him and his siblings from an early age. One of the others had to do with finances. Even though the Warren family was stable, finances were always something that his father in particular worried about. Therefore, he was always on the hunt for new opportunities to supplement their income and provide for the family.
This included opening a trailer park and, at one point, getting a paper route. Even though the paper route required Kelcy Warren’s dad to get up at 2:30am, he didn’t mind. He was never one to eschew his sense of responsibility and indeed came to like the quiet, peaceful time that the job afforded him.
When two essential life lessons learned early on revolved around essential topics like community and finances, it’s easy to see why philanthropy in all its forms became such a big priority for Kelcy Warren once he found professional success.
This most recent donation isn’t even the only time he has financially supported University of Texas at Arlington. It has been estimated that he has donated more than $4 million over the course of the last 25 years. Obviously, the latest donation marks a significant step-up in his efforts to give back to the educational institution that has already given him so much – an example that Kelcy Warren hopes as many people as possible follow moving forward.
Learn more about Kelcy Warren here: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/kelcy-l-warren
